Everything you need to know about the new £10 note

Aimee Stanton

Just as we've stopped trying to rip apart the new indestructible £5 notes, the new £10 note will be revealed by Bank of England governor Mark Carney at Winchester Cathedral later today..

It will feature a portrait of Jane Austen, with the note being being launched on the 200th anniversary of her death, where the author is buried.

Like its predecessor, the £10 note will be waterproof and 'unrippable'. But here's what else you need to know about the new £10 note.

When will it be released?

The Bank of England has reportedly already printed 275 million £10 notes. It's not ready to be released just yet though as the new note is expected to be officially circulated from September 2017 by the Bank of England.

What will it look like?

After years of campaigning Jane Austen will become the only woman to be featured on the back of an English banknote and to mark the 200th anniversary of the author's death the new plastic £10 note will be formally unveiled on 18th July at Winchester Cathedral, where Austen was buried in 1817.

From what's been revealed so far, the mock up design has already found itself criticized as campaigners have accused the Bank of England of ‘airbrushing’ the portrait of Austen to remove her eye bags, thin lips and pointed chin. We'll discover this July what the Bank of England thinks Austen really looks like.

Is this one ‘vegan’?

Like the infamous £5 note release earlier this year, the new £10 note will also include small traces of tallow (animal fat) much to the dismay of vegetarians and vegans across the country.

Although a petition to replace the tallow found in the £5 note attracted over 135,000 signatures, the new £10 note will contain animal fat regardless.

The Bank of England says that Polymer banknotes are “cleaner, more secure, and more durable than paper banknotes. They will provide enhanced counterfeit resilience, and increase the quality of banknotes in circulation.”

The Bank of England is currently investigating how to make the new £20 note due to launch in 2020 tallow free.